Adatepe Village: A Journey Through Time and Nature in Çanakkale Ayvacık
In the Ayvacık district of Çanakkale, there is a wonderful village with its magnificent nature, mythological and historical sites, and soaps that smell like olives: Adatepe village. But do you know what makes Adatepe so beautiful?
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In the Ayvacık district of Çanakkale, there is a quiet village that smells of olives, far away from the hustle and bustle of city life: Adatepe village.
Before the War of Independence, Turks and Orthodox Greeks lived together in the village. In the early 1900s, there were about 600 Orthodox Greeks in the village, where there was a church called "Koimēsis tēs Theotokou" in Greek, meaning "Assumption of the Mother of God".
After the exchange with Greece, Cretan Turks replaced the Greeks in 1924. However, when they left the village in time, Adatepe turned into a ghost village.
Adatepe's fate of abandonment changed in the 1980s when someone fleeing city life started restoring traditional houses.
People from Ankara, Izmir and Istanbul have bought the ruined buildings of Adatepe and transformed them into living spaces, preserving the traditional architecture.
The village, which is home to about 400 people today, is protected as a protected area by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. The village houses, which are examples of Turkish and Greek architecture, can be restored, but it is forbidden to build a new house.
The history of Adatepe, located in the north of the Edremit Gulf, contains just as many mythological stories.
On a hill overlooking the Gulf of Edremit, there is a historical site with a stone room called the altar of Zeus and a cistern filled with water. According to Homer's Iliad epic, it is believed that Zeus, the king of the gods, watched the Trojan Wars from here.
This beautiful and quiet village is surrounded by olives. The inhabitants of the village make their living from olive cultivation.
The inhabitants of Adatepe produce cold pressed olive oil and make olive oil soaps scented with lavender, laurel and rosemary. The village's soaps are even exported, their packaging decorated with a picture of a Greek girl.
When you go to Çanakkale, you can visit Adatepe and buy some extremely fragrant soaps from a shop selling products from the village.
If you want to visit Adatepe, you can find a lot to see and explore in this beautiful village.
Adatepe Stone School
Adatepe Village Primary School provided education between 1947 and 1985, but was closed in 1985 due to lack of students. In 1997, a group of volunteers rented the stone school from the Çanakkale Governorship and turned it into Adatepe Taşmektep, where seminars and workshops are held in fields such as philosophy, history, literature, art, art history, mathematics and archeology.
Kazdağı National Park
There are many beautiful places in Kazdağı National Park: Sarıkız Tomb, Hasan Boğuldu Pond, Mıhlı Stream and its bridge, Darıdere Nature Park, Şahinderesi Canyon, Yeşilyurt Village. It may be difficult to fit it into one day, but you should definitely see these places.
Zeus Altar
In Homer's Iliad epic, Zeus is said to have watched and directed the Trojan War from here. Researchers working in the region also think that the place built on a hill overlooking the sea and the Gulf of Edremit belonged to Zeus.
Adatepe Olive Oil Museum:
The culture of olives and olive oil is continued here by restoring the historical soap house building in Küçükkuyu. Various tools for olive, olive oil and soap production collected from the surrounding villages are exhibited here.
What to eat in Adatepe?
In the village of Adatepe, olive and olive oil dishes typical of Aegean cuisine are at the forefront. As you walk around the village, you will often come across aunts who sell pancakes. You can buy many different pancakes with herbs, cheese, potatoes and minced meat. You can also try ice cream with herbs, olive milk and stuffed zucchini blossoms with olive oil. You can choose seafood and meat products in the restaurants close to the village.
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